Koreas Open High-Level Nuke Talks

By Paul Shin, AP, Washington Post,
Sunday 20 October 2002; 8:15 AM

SEOUL, South Korea—South Korea presented its demand Sunday that the
North abandon its nuclear weapons program, but was met with silence,
South Korean officials said.

The North’s nuclear issue was a main topic at Cabinet-level
talks that opened in the North’s capital, Pyongyang. It was the
first official venue for South Korea to raise the issue since
Washington said North Korea admitted having a nuclear weapons program
in violation of a 1994 agreement the two countries signed in Geneva.

We demanded that North Korea faithfully honor all international
agreements it has signed, Rhee Bong-jo, a South Korean spokesman,
said after the first-day talks ended after just 50 minutes.

We also asked them to open dialogue with concerned countries and
the international community and take convincing actions, Rhee said
in pool reports distributed in Seoul. No foreign reporters were
allowed to cover the talks.

Rhee said North Korean officials just listened to the South
Korean demands and did not respond.

Rhee said the two sides had no plan to meet again on Sunday but
instead planned to discuss the issue in informal talks. The talks in
Pyongyang, the eighth in a series since a historic inter-Korean summit
in 2000, were scheduled to continue until Tuesday.

Instead of holding a further formal meeting Sunday, officials of the
two Koreas met in informal talks to discuss the nuclear issue, pool
reports said.

A formal North Korean reponse to the South Korean demand was expected
in another round of main talks on Monday, South Korean officials said.

Overall, the atmosphere of the talks was heavy but sincere, Rhee
said. He also said other issues taken up at the talks included a
proposal to account for thousands of people missing during and after
the 1950-53 Korean War.

Before starting full talks, the two chief delegates exchanged testy
remarks over the North’s nuclear issue in the presence of
reporters.

Checking the weather in Pyongyang this morning, I found the skies
have come down. It looks like rain. I feel heavy-hearted just like the
weather, said chief South Korean delegate Jeong Se-hyun, alluding
to his concerns over the North’s nuclear weapons program.

The chief North Korean negotiator, Kim Ryong Song, replied: No
matter what the weather outside looks like, concerns would disappear
if the North and South join hands and try to resolve problems,
according to the pool reports.

If there is a big difference in temperature, you can catch cold,
Jeong said. It’s no good if it’s too warm inside while
it’s too cold outside. The temperature should be made
similar.

The talks in Pyongyang had been planned to discuss inter-Korean
reconciliation, long before the North’s nuclear issue
arose. South Korea decided make the North’s nuclear issue a
priority.

During talks with visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James
Kelly in Pyongyang on Oct. 3-5, North Korean officials acknowledged
that they had a uranium-enriching program to make weapons.

The program violates a 1994 agreement for energy-starved North Korea
to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program in exchange for two
modern, light-water reactors and 500,000 tons of fuel oil a year until
the reactors are completed.

During the talks with Kelly, North Korean officials said they
considered the 1994 agreement invalid because the reactors were not
expected to be finished by 2003 as promised. The project has been
delayed by funding problems and tension on the Korean Peninsula.

On Saturday in Seoul, Kelly said Washington would try to muster
maximum international pressure on North Korea to dismantle its
nuclear weapons program. He said the United States would not take the
same diplomatic course that led to the 1994 accord.

Kelly headed to Japan Sunday for talks with Japanese leaders about
North Korea’s nuclear program. He was expected to discuss
temporarily freezing construction on two the two light-water nuclear
reactors in North Korea.

A U.S. State Department official told The Associated Press Saturday
night that no decision has been reached yet on the 1994 accord. The
official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States
wants to consult with its allies before making a decision on the pact.

The North’s admission seriously challenged South Korean
President Kim Dae-jung’s sunshine policy of engaging
Pyongyang. The South Korean government says dialogue is the best way
to deal with concerns about North Korea, and the United States has
also said it will seek a peaceful resolution to the issue of
nuclear weapons.